Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino was left questioning the judgement of referee Mike Dean who chose not to award Spurs 2 penalties during a 0-0 draw with Swansea City at Wembley.
Despite an impressive 3-1 win over German giants Borussia Dortmund in mid-week at the national stadium, Tottenham fell back into old habits today, slumping to a 0-0 draw with lowly Swansea.
Though Tottenham had 26 shots, 11 corners and 75% of possession, Kane and company never looked like finding the back of the net, with 18 of Tottenham’s attempts on goal off-target.
In addition to the attacking wastefulness, Spurs were denied no less than 2 seemingly stone-wall penalties by referee Mike Dean.
Once early in the second half when a cross from Kieran Trippier struck the hand of Swansea’s Martin Olsson and again in the 89th minute of play when Serge Aurier was tripped by Jordan Ayew, for which Aurier himself was bafflingly booked.
Voicing his exasperation at the decisions, Mauricio Pochettino took his post-match interview as an opportunity to question Mike Dean’s judgement.
“It is so clear,” He told BBCSport. “What is not clear is why Mike Dean justified in front of our players that it was handball, but it was not handball.”
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“If you are not sure about the situation then why say it was handball? It was unlucky but we need to look at ourselves and try to be better next time and score before this situation.”
“It was unlucky for us. We did not get the one penalty we deserved. In that situation the referee had a no good afternoon.”
The Argentine gaffer did however display more optimism in his side’s performance, claiming that he was ‘happy’ with how Spurs played today, despite the disappointing result.
“We did everything to win,” He added. We created chances and dominated the game but were a little unlucky.”
“I like to talk about my team, we created a lot of chances to score. It is true after the draw to say well done to Swansea and congratulate them for taking a draw.”
“I am happy with the performance although it is another game we draw here at Wembley and that is no good.”
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